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Sea Ice Concentration data from NOAA OI

The NOAA Optimal Interpolation (OI) v2 sea ice data set contains gridded, weekly or monthly resolution sea ice concentration estimates for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It is intended as a consistent analyses for input into SST analyses (and is the basis for calculating SSTs in sea ice zones for the OI SST data) or as boundary conditions for atmospheric models. The sea ice portion of NOAA OI v2 is produced similarly to HadISST sea ice, using adjusted passive microwave derived sea ice data from from the NASA Goddard NASA Team algorithm followed by operational sea ice data from NCEP. Users should be aware that the NOAA OI sea ice contains similar discontinuities as HadISST in recent years (see Screen, 2011).

Key Strengths:

Gridded, long-term weekly or monthly data set convenient for modeling or analyses

Regularly updated

Key Limitations:

Higher resolution and more homogenous (single algorithm) data are available for the modern satellite period, 1979-present.

Similar to HadISST through ~1996; post 1996 no adjustments were made to account for changing satellite sources and/or algorithms employed by NCEP; switches made in 1997, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2011 may strongly affect the timeseries

Acknowledgement of any material taken from this page is appreciated. On behalf of experts who have contributed data, advice, and/or figures, please cite their work as well.

Sea Ice Concentration data from NOAA OI

The NOAA Optimal Interpolation (OI) v2 sea ice data set contains gridded, weekly or monthly resolution sea ice concentration estimates for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It is intended as a consistent analyses for input into SST analyses (and is the basis for calculating SSTs in sea ice zones for the OI SST data) or as boundary conditions for atmospheric models. The sea ice portion of NOAA OI v2 is produced similarly to HadISST sea ice, using adjusted passive microwave derived sea ice data from from the NASA Goddard NASA Team algorithm followed by operational sea ice data from NCEP. Users should be aware that the NOAA OI sea ice contains similar discontinuities as HadISST in recent years (see Screen, 2011).

The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.